UNDP Fiji Plastic Circularity and Waste Management: An Ethnographic Study

UNDP-FIJI-PLASTICS-CIRCULARITY-2022

UNDP-FIJI-PLASTICS-CIRCULARITY-2022

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UNDP Fiji Plastic Circularity and Waste Management: An Ethnographic Study

August 1, 2022

The plastics crisis is one of the most complex global challenges of our time. With its negative impacts on both human and environmental heath, there is an urgent need to shift to a more circular economy for plastics. Our current take-make-waste model where single-use plastics has become ubiquitous in our daily lives is proving detrimental to our people and planet. If we continue with business as usual, it is estimated that by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean. With the ocean holding special cultural, social, and economical value to Pacific Islanders, it is crucial that a whole systems approach is taken to address this plastics crisis. This publication is the product of 8 months of ethnography research on the stakeholders that make up the plastics value chain. Through research methods of participant observation, semi-structured, formal interviews, Fijian talanoa sessions (informal conversations), attendance at formal gatherings, and virtual ethnography—insights were generated from a range of stakeholders across the entire plastics value chain. Micro-narratives on the lived realities of stakeholders were captured, which helped to identify potential entry points for a systemically designed portfolio of interventions that can help shift the current system to a more circular economy for plastics. The manufacture, utilization, and disposal of plastics need to be redesigned to ensure plastic waste is a thing of the past, and any plastic that is produced is designed with the intention to continue to circulate in the economy, rather than discarded after a single use. With the challenge at hand being considered a ‘wicked’ problem, it is going to take innovative and inclusive solutions to curb the plastics crisis, and the collective effort and commitment of all members of society.